Car Bike Rack Recommendations

[queequeg]

Sadly, GST is charged on top if everything (including the stamp duty and dealer delivery charges, which is pretty cheeky but that’s the govt for you. Their website lists the price inclusive of GST, your invoice will list it without GST and then add the GST figure on at the end (at least that is how it looks for mine).

I thought I would let you know that I eventually heard back from Subaru Australia and they said that all accessories listed on the website INCLUDE GST already, so make sure that your dealer isn't adding another 10% on top. My dealer did and now that I have confirmation from Subaru, I have queried it with them as I believe they overcharged me by $222.

Thanks, I’ll double check the invoice and speak to the dealer, as the way he did it sort of obfuscates what I actually paid for various things (i.e. they are listed at full price then there is a discount line item at the bottom.

It does look like they put the ex-GST prices for everything though, before adding GST as a single item at the end.

I took the MY22 Model for a spin the other day, as we originally drove an MY21. Only real difference was the ventilated seats, which I must save were quite nice (we have this on our SantaFe).

No update on my delivery date as yet, but I had fun in iso finding the source of the water leaks in my Mazda. Finally found both, fixed one, and have it booked in on Wednesday at the mechanic to fix the other one. I lifted up the carpet today and removed all the water sodden underlay that’s been in there for months (car parked outside in the rain before I knew it was leaking). New underlay ordered. Dealer offered me $3k for the car as a trade in, so will try and offload privately first.

[Andy01]

On my invoice everything was added to the normal RRP price (excl GST for the car price), and the prices listed for the accessories were as per the website (they didn't reduce the price by the 10% GST first), then at the end the $3k discount came off, and then GST was calculated, so I had to do a few iterative calculations to work out what was included in the GST calculation - not very clear (perhaps for good reason ... for the dealer ?).

I am curious to see how the dealer explains the calculation - if I ever get a response that is - their hit rate in responding to emails since I placed the order has been pretty poor (2 out of 7 from memory).

I think the main differences between 2021 and 2022 were the ventilated seats and driver's seat thigh extension (for taller people with long legs), and I think, but not sure the heated steering wheel. I agree that the ventilated seats are great, especially when climbing into the car on a hot sunny day where the leather has been super-heated by the sun. This is the first car I have had them on.

[Andy01]

A short update on my first use of my new Thule VeloCompact 2 bike carrier. I went to Byron Bay this past weekend and loaded our bikes up for the trip.

First my point of comparison;

My previous carrier was a strap-on BnB Supporter rack that sat above the number plate of my old Passat and had channels for the bike wheels to sit in. It was quite a nice carrier because the bikes didn't swing around or bounce. It did, however, take me a good 20 minutes to fit it to the car (trying to take care not to scratch the paint with the clips) and another 20 minutes to load up the bikes and strap them on (I used extra straps, especially on the wheels because the carrier's straps were a little short for wider MTB wheels) - it was also (ideally) a two person job because the heavier MTBs had to be lifted quite high. Once loaded up it worked well enough but the bikes sat quite high (well above roof level & enough to noticeably increase fuel consumption) and it was, of course, impossible to open the boot with it fitted. The carrier did not lock on to the car, so I used a short cable lock looped around the car's boot latch to lock the carrier to the car (because it was a pain to remove & fit while it wasn't carrying bikes) - this was a bit awkward because the Passat had a powered tailgate and opening and closing it while trying to hold the cable loop in place was hazardous (I got my hand squashed once doing this).

Now to the Thule;

It took me around 90 seconds to fit the carrier and lock it to the towball and lift the vertical brace. It took another 5-8 minutes (I didn't time it) to load the bikes on to the carrier, strap them down and lock them in place and I could lift the bikes easily because the carrier was much lower. The bikes sat completely within the bounds of my Outback (didn't stick out above or on the sides of the car). The carrier was completely stable, even at 110km/h and over a short gravel stretch we did. When we got to the AirBnB in BB, I just removed the carrier and put it into the boot because it was such an easy job to do. We also had to open the boot/tailgate a couple of times with the bikes fitted and it was a simple case of releasing the carrier tilt mechanism and opening the tailgate.

All in all, the Thule VeloCompact was an absolute pleasure to use. The only "downside" was that although the Outback's genuine towbar fit does disable rear autonomous braking (RAB) while in use, the rear parking sensors and camera squealed continuously when the car was in reverse - which is understandable, but this didn't happen with my previous carrier because everything was mounted well above the parking sensors.

[bychosis]

Didn’t you use auxiliary lights with the rack? Usually plugging in a trailer connector is enough to disable reverse sensors etc.

[Andy01]

The Thule has a built-in light bar and number plate holder. It disables the RAB but not the sensors.